Why does SEOmoz assign such a high Domain Authority to subdomains on blogspot, typepad, wordpress.com, etc.?

[RyanKent]

Domain Authority, as assigned by SEOmoz, applies to the root domain. It is part of the fundamental definition of the term. All the details can be found here: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/domain-authority

An important factor to consider is any subdomain on wordpress.com is owned by WordPress. There are specific standards which must be maintained. WordPress has the right to recall any subdomain for a variety of reasons, or perhaps no reason at all depending on their contract.

[CMC-SD]

"There are specific standards which must be maintained."

I don't believe that's true. UGC companies always mention lots of things you're not supposed to do in their TOU, but that (to use another acronym) is pure CYA. They do not proactively patrol the UGC they host. They have extremely limited legal liability for that content (in the U.S., at least). Content on a wordpress.com subdomain is not particularly likely to be good or trustworthy.

[CMC-SD]

I guess my question should actually be "Why doesn't SEOmoz treat this kind of subdomain differently from other subdomains, since we're pretty sure Google does treat it differently?"

[RyanKent]

While that all may be true, they do have the ability to enforce their terms as they see fit, and do so at times.

[RyanKent]

You can offer that suggestion to SEOmoz here: https://seomoz.zendesk.com/forums/293194-seomoz-PRO-feature-requests

Can you help me understand how this information would be helpful? What if SEOmoz made the exact change you were requesting. How can you use that data to make a difference for your site or the sites of your clients?

[MattAntonino]

One example that may be relevant is the franchise owners who asked a question last week.

What if you are in London competing with:

London.somefranchise.com

We know (strongly believe) that Google treats subdomains as a separate site and subfolders as the same domain.  London.somefranchise.com may have a "real" DA of 14 and you use that info the way you use any DA info. That's not the site you want to partner with if someotherlondonfranchise.com has a DA 40.

Meanwhile, the main somefranchise.com may have a DA 89 so you pursue a relationship with London.somefranchise.com because their DA is 89...but it's not.  Having the subdomain's actual DA would help.

[KeriMorgret]

The couple of times I've found my content duplicated on a Wordpress.com domain, they've removed the content or banned the blog (which was entirely copies of other peoples' content) right away.

[CMC-SD]

It would make the SEOmoz data more in line with actual rankings. I would guess that treating these UGC subdomains as their own domains with their own DA would make DA correlate a bit better with rankings.

[RyanKent]

That may be true, but my question was...how EXACTLY would you use that data to make a business decision?

The point I was trying to make is....

Google devalues a tremendous amount of links based on spaminess and other factors. PA and DA were not fully aligned with PR previously. They did offer insight into a site's backlinks but we accepted it could differ from Google based on various factors such as:

• Linkscape does not crawl as deeply or as fast as Google

• OSE also cannot differentiate between a "good" link and a bad one.

• OSE also cannot differentiate between a sidebar link, a footer link and an in-content link

Please don't get me wrong. I like OSE and use it daily. I often see SEOs and site owners trying to use PA or DA in a manner that, in my opinion, it is not effective. I use PA and DA as an indicator, not the determining factor.

For example, I may see a new site which is well designed, has fantastic content and a passionate owner. I know this site will grow over time and would gladly pursue a link from it. On the other hand, I may see a site with great PA and DA, but it is not ranking well due to Panda issues. Clearly these issues affect the value of any links received.

There are many other examples I can share but the point is, you can use the PA and DA as-is and gain value from them. Penguin is undergoing a major update which will likely further change the link landscape. There is so much volatility related to links right now it is hard for a software company to invest money devising a link measurement system which will likely need to undergo a major change before it is published. My two cents.

[CMC-SD]

Getting a quick look at my competitors' high-DA inbound links is helpful to me as I assess the strengths and weaknesses of their link profile. Right now, I have to filter out a bunch of fake-high-DA wordpress, typepad, and blogspot blogs -- and meanwhile, I don't have a clue how Google actually feels about those subdomains. This annoys me. So a change like the one I am proposing would make me less annoyed.

Obviously I understand that finite resources go into developing these tools, which is why I'm not demanding that this be changed!11!1eleventy

[KeriMorgret]

Did you know we have a feature request forum at https://seomoz.zendesk.com/forums/293194-seomoz-pro-feature-requests where you could submit that idea?

Do keep in mind that we don't have access to Google's algorithm either, so it would be our idea of how it is influenced, not what Google thinks about it.